Home Office

Home Office: Staff

lord marlesford: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Williams of Trafford on 14 May (HL15405), whether they will name the three Home Office officials who were convicted in open court of criminal offences in connection with their official duties.

baroness williams of trafford: The Home Office withheld the names of staff members to ensure that it did not breach statutory and data protection obligations.

Department for Education

Special Educational Needs

lord porter of spalding: To ask Her Majesty's Government what stepsthey are taking to ensure that mainstream schools are supported and incentivised to be more inclusive towards children with special educational needs and disabilities.

lord agnew of oulton: The Children and Families Act 2014 reinforced the presumption of mainstream education for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The accompanying SEND code of practice provides detailed guidance to schools about how to support children with SEND. We have announced funding for new training places for over 600 new Educational Psychologists who help ensure that children with SEND get the support they need in school. We are promoting the increased development of mainstream units and resourced provision through recent capital expenditure and in our guidance to new bidders for mainstream free schools. In December we announced a further £100 million top-up to the Special Provision Capital Fund for local authorities in 2019-20. This takes our total investment to £365 million across 2018-21. This funding can be used for more places in SEND units and resourced provision in mainstream schools, colleges or in special schools. We are funding the Whole School SEND Consortium to embed SEND into school improvement planning and Continuing Professional Development (CPD). New SEND regional leads are bringing together practitioners and networks in their local area to build a community of practice and facilitate the exchange of knowledge and expertise. The new Ofsted common inspection framework, introduced from September 2019, will put more focus on SEND, rewarding schools for their work with pupils who need extra support. In addition, local area SEND inspections by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission are considering how effectively the local area identifies, meets the needs of, and improves the outcomes for the wide range of different groups of children and young people who have SEND. A call for evidence on how the SEND funding system operates was recently announced on 3 May 2019 to help the department understand how the current available funding is distributed, and what improvements to the financial arrangements could be made in future.

Special Educational Needs

the marquess of lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensurethat local authorities comply fully with the Children and Families Act2014 in the cases of children with education, health and care plans; and what action they are taking to ensure that there are no disincentives, both in terms of funding and concerns over their position on league tables, for schools to be inclusive and to accept children with special educational needs.

lord agnew of oulton: To ensure local authorities comply fully with their obligations under the Children and Families Act (2014), including on education, health and care plans, we introduced new local area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspections by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in 2016. All local areas will be inspected by 2021. These inspections do not give a pass/fail judgement. They instead identify areas of strength and where improvement is required, including asking an area to produce a Written Statement of Action if there are significant concerns. Where we have concerns with a local area’s performance, we work with partners, including NHS England, to support and challenge the area to improve. The inspection reports have proved a catalyst for local change, both where Written Statements of Action have been required and where they have not. Local authorities and their health partners have embraced the process and used inspection findings to prioritise areas for improvement. In terms of ensuring schools are inclusive, the Children and Families Act (2014) reinforced the presumption of mainstream education for children with SEND. The attached SEND Code of Practice provides detailed guidance to schools about how to support children with SEND. The new Ofsted common inspection framework, introduced from September 2019, emphasises the need for leaders to offer high-quality, inclusive education and training to all. We launched a call for evidence on how the special educational needs funding system operates in May 2019 to help us understand how the current available funding is distributed, and what improvements to the financial arrangements could be made in future.



HL15886_PDF
(PDF Document, 3.23 MB)

Ministry of Justice

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

lord scriven: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 10 May (HL15362), if such data on the waiting times for appeal hearings on Personal Independence Payment claimsare not heldcentrally andcould only be provided at disproportionate cost, how they determinewhether (1) claims are being dealt with in a timely manner, and (2) the resources allocated to deal with appeals are adequate to meet the backlog of appeal claims.

lord keen of elie: HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) closely monitors waiting times. However, HMCTS does not keep data on waiting times within the specific and localised timeframes cited in the earlier question, answered on 10 May (HL15362), to which this question refers – namely, (1) up to six months, (2) six to 12 months, (3) 12 to 24 months, and (4) over 24 months. Information about volumes and waiting times for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) appeals is published by the Ministry of Justice in the Tribunals and Gender Recognition Certificate Statistics Quarterly. HMCTS receives a bi-annual forecast of expected appeals from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and that informs our resourcing plans as well as informing judicial recruitment. Additional fee-paid judicial office holders have been recruited: 250 judges across the First-tier Tribunal, 118 disability qualified members and up to 232 medical members. In addition, more PIP appeals are being listed per session and case-management “triage” sessions have been introduced, with the aim of reducing the time taken for appeals to reach final determination. All these measures will increase the capacity of the tribunal, with the aim of reducing waiting times for appellants.